ABSTRACT
The importance of leadership is recognized in all Islamic societies and Iran in the 1960s was a society ripe for the emergence of an Islamic leader; Iranians were faced with the choice between a western style monarchy (originating in a coup d’etat) or a traditional Islamic model of leadership. The programme of the reformist monarch Muhammad Reza Shah, known as the ‘White Revolution’, was one of modernization while Ruhollah Khomeini symbolized a traditional Iranian form of charisma. His design of leadership style appealed to indigenous cultural forces by raising anxieties that national identity was threatened by the colonial exploitation of the United States and Britain. The western-dependent leadership of the Shah offered less to the needs and desires of many Iranians than a strong national leader with commanding moral authority and spiritual appeal.
